Creating a cybersecurity policy and teaching employees how to deal with emails that may contain viruses are some of the tips local experts discussed with small business owners Wednesday morning at the Suffolk Theater in Riverhead.

UPDATE: Suffolk County Police arrested Rocky Point resident Robert Edlund on Tuesday in relation to Saturday’s bank robbery in Rocky Point, as well as another that occurred Monday in Medford. Police said Mr. Edlund robbed a Suffolk County National Bank in Medford around 2 p.m. and was found shortly after hiding underneath a tractor trailer in the parking lot of the Island 16 cinema in Holbrook.

He was charged with two counts of third-degree robbery.

ORIGINAL STORY: Suffolk County Police are searching for someone who robbed a Bridgehampton National Bank in Rocky Point this morning.

According to police, a man entered the bank — located at 75 Route 25A, near the intersection of Westchester Drive — and handed the teller a note demanding cash at about 9:45.

The teller complied, according to Suffolk P.D., and the man fled on foot heading eastbound after the incident.

Police described the man as white and about 6 feet tall. Police said he is thin and about 45 to 50 years old, and was wearing a beige sweatshirt, blue jeans and a baseball cap.

Sufolk Police Pattern Crime Unit is investigating the robbery. Authorities ask that anyone with information about the incident call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS. All calls will be kept anonymous.

With hot dogs, ice cream and two supersized pairs of scissors, Bridgehampton National Bank employees celebrated the grand reopening with a ribbon cutting at its new Main Road location Thursday. (more…)

In its 2014 first quarter report, Bridge Bancorp, Inc., parent company of Bridgehampton National Bank (BNB), announced a record core net income and core earnings per share of $4 million and 35 cents per share — a 39 percent increase in core net income over March 2013. (more…)

BARBARAELLEN KOCH PHOTO | Bridgehampton National Bank Mattituck branch manager Deborah Orlowski and her employees will be moving into the former SCNB building on the Main Road in Mattituck this summer after it is remodeled.

Call it the House that Orlowski Built.

After four years of growth at Bridgehampton National Bank’s shopping center branch in the Mattituck Plaza, the branch and its employees — including longtime Mattituck banker Debbie Orlowski — are moving across Main Road to the brick building recently vacated by Suffolk County National Bank.

“The exterior’s being worked on right now,” said Jim Manseau, who oversees all of the bank’s 26 branches from Montauk to Merrick. “The building was power-washed the other day. We’re going to seal and stripe the parking lot. And we’re doing some pretty decent renovations to the interior — new bathrooms, paint, rugs — an entire re-do.”

The company and landlord are just waiting on town building permits, he said. The plan is to open before the end of summer.

Mr. Manseau said the move was made possible because of how much the Mattituck branch has grown since hiring Ms. Orlowski from Capital One four years ago. She had worked for 38 years at North Fork Bank — back when it was called North Fork Bank and Trust Company and had just six branches — and Capital One before leaving in May 2010 for Bridgehampton.

Ms. Orlowski credits her success to the decades’ worth of relationships and trust she’s built with area clients.

“I started here May 3 of 2010 and it’s been wonderful,” she said. “I took a small branch that had been here for about 20 years and actually more than tripled the deposits. I’m kind of proud of that.”

Not much thought went into the decision to lease the building, Mr. Manseau said.

“We were contacted by someone after [Suffolk County National Bank] left and we said, ‘Absolutely,’<\!q>” he said. “We really believe in the Mattituck marketplace and that’s a great space, with plenty of parking and a drive-up window.”

The same staff customers have grown accustomed to in the plaza’s location, which has been in operation since 1992, will also make the move.

“The plan is, when the time comes, we’ll open Saturday in the shopping center and come Monday morning we’ll be open across the street,” Mr. Manseau said.

The 104-year-old Bridgehampton National Bank, which is based in Bridgehampton and just opened a Shelter Island branch last year, is getting ready to open a loan production storefront in Riverhead and is renovating its Southold and Sag Harbor stores, Mr. Manseau said.

The bank is also expanding its footprint to the west.

“We’re in Greenport, Shelter Island and Montauk, so you can’t go farther east,” he said. “But we want to continue to address our more mature marketplaces.”

Officials with Suffolk Bancorp, the parent company of SCNB, announced in November the branch would be closing by March, along with three other branches in Port Jefferson Station, Manorville and Montauk Harbor.

At the time, Suffolk Bancorp president and CEO Howard Bluver said the branches would close to make the bank more “efficient and nimble” and to protect the “best core deposit franchises.”

“Following these actions, we will continue to have the premier branch system in Suffolk County, consisting of 24 branches situated in key locations throughout the entire county,” Mr. Bluver said. He added that the locations were picked for closure following an analysis of the company’s branches by an outside consultant.

The Mattituck branch closed on Feb. 14 and the property, which had been owned by Suffolk Bancorp, was sold shortly thereafter, bank officials said this week.